Six-month intragastric balloon treatment for obesity improves lung function, body composition, and metabolic syndrome

The purpose of this study is to establish whether the use of an intragastric balloon (IGB) for 6 months improves lung function, metabolic parameters, and body fat distribution in patients with overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome (MS).

This is a longitudinal and interventional study on 40 adults, whose anthropometric, laboratory, and lung function parameters were assessed and who underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) before implantation and after removal of IGB.

The total lung capacity (TLC) (p = 0.0001), functional residual capacity (FRC) (p = 0.0001), residual volume (p = 0.0005), and expiratory reserve volume (ERV) (p = 0.0001) were significantly reduced by IGB. The body mass index (BMI) significantly decreased from a median of 39.1 kg/m(2) at the beginning of the study to 34.5 kg/m(2) at the end of the 6-month period (p = 0.0001). At the end of the study, 31 participants (77.5%) no longer met the diagnostic criteria of MS. The percentage of truncal, android, gynoid, and total fat investigated by DXA exhibited significant reductions (p = 0.0001). Significant correlations were found between delta TLC and delta waist circumference (ρ = -0.34; p = 0.03), delta FRC and delta IMC (ρ = -0.39; p = 0.01), delta ERV and delta BMI (ρ = -0.44; p = 0.005), and delta ERV and delta high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (ρ = -0.37; p = 0.02). Significant correlations were also found between delta ERV and delta truncal (ρ = -0.51; p = 0.004), android (ρ = -0.46; p = 0.01), gynoid (ρ = -0.55; p = 0.001), and total fat (ρ = -0.59; p = 0.0005).

IGB efficiently induced weight loss and promoted the improvement of lung function parameters, with a reduction of the restrictive ventilatory defect. It also promoted improvements of MS and the pattern of body fat distribution.